diff --git a/HISTORY b/HISTORY
index 312c5f39..67a67e69 100644
--- a/HISTORY
+++ b/HISTORY
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 SnapRAID HISTORY
 ================
 
-11.0 2016/09
+11.0 2016/10
 ============
  * Added support for splitting the parity in multiple partitions. You
    can now specify multiple files for a single parity. As soon a file
diff --git a/cmdline/check.c b/cmdline/check.c
index 293139b7..b2d120e1 100644
--- a/cmdline/check.c
+++ b/cmdline/check.c
@@ -1955,7 +1955,7 @@ int state_check(struct snapraid_state* state, int fix, block_off_t blockstart, b
 				/* LCOV_EXCL_STOP */
 			}
 
-			ret = parity_chsize(parity_ptr[l], &state->parity[l], 0, size, state->block_size, state->opt.skip_fallocate);
+			ret = parity_chsize(parity_ptr[l], &state->parity[l], 0, size, state->block_size, state->opt.skip_fallocate, state->opt.skip_space_holder);
 			if (ret == -1) {
 				/* LCOV_EXCL_START */
 				log_fatal("WARNING! Without an accessible %s file, it isn't possible to sync.\n", lev_name(l));
diff --git a/cmdline/parity.c b/cmdline/parity.c
index 32356748..907caae6 100644
--- a/cmdline/parity.c
+++ b/cmdline/parity.c
@@ -346,7 +346,7 @@ uint64_t hbit_u64(uint64_t v)
 	return 1ULL << ilog;
 }
 
-static int parity_handle_fill(struct snapraid_split_handle* split, data_off_t size, uint32_t block_size, int skip_fallocate)
+static int parity_handle_fill(struct snapraid_split_handle* split, data_off_t size, uint32_t block_size, int skip_fallocate, int skip_space_holder)
 {
 	data_off_t base;
 	data_off_t delta;
@@ -362,38 +362,43 @@ static int parity_handle_fill(struct snapraid_split_handle* split, data_off_t si
 	 * the disk.
 	 */
 	char spaceholder_path[PATH_MAX];
-	data_off_t spaceholder_size = 256 * 1024 * 1024;
-	int spaceholder_f;
 
 	pathprint(spaceholder_path, sizeof(spaceholder_path), "%s%s", split->path, ".spaceholder");
 
-	spaceholder_f = open(spaceholder_path, O_RDWR | O_CREAT | O_TRUNC | O_BINARY, 0600);
-	if (spaceholder_f == -1) {
-		log_fatal("Failed to create space holder file '%s'.\n", spaceholder_path);
-		return -1;
-	}
+	if (!skip_space_holder) {
+		data_off_t spaceholder_size = 256 * 1024 * 1024;
+		int spaceholder_f;
 
-	/* note that in Windows ftruncate is really allocating space */
-	if (ftruncate(spaceholder_f, spaceholder_size) != 0) {
-		log_fatal("WARNING Failed to resize the space holder file '%s' to %llu bytes.\n", spaceholder_path, spaceholder_size);
-		log_fatal("Assuming that no more space is available.\n");
-		close(spaceholder_f);
-		remove(spaceholder_path);
-		return 0;
-	}
+		spaceholder_f = open(spaceholder_path, O_RDWR | O_CREAT | O_TRUNC | O_BINARY, 0600);
+		if (spaceholder_f == -1) {
+			log_fatal("Failed to create space holder file '%s'.\n", spaceholder_path);
+			return -1;
+		}
 
-	if (fsync(spaceholder_f) != 0) {
-		log_fatal("Failed to sync the space holder file '%s'.\n", spaceholder_path);
-		close(spaceholder_f);
-		remove(spaceholder_path);
-		return -1;
-	}
+		/* note that in Windows ftruncate is really allocating space */
+		if (ftruncate(spaceholder_f, spaceholder_size) != 0) {
+			log_fatal("WARNING Failed to resize the space holder file '%s' to %llu bytes.\n", spaceholder_path, spaceholder_size);
+			log_fatal("Assuming that no more space is available.\n");
+			close(spaceholder_f);
+			remove(spaceholder_path);
+			return 0;
+		}
 
-	if (close(spaceholder_f) != 0) {
-		log_fatal("Failed to close the space holder file '%s'.\n", spaceholder_path);
-		remove(spaceholder_path);
-		return -1;
+		if (fsync(spaceholder_f) != 0) {
+			log_fatal("Failed to sync the space holder file '%s'.\n", spaceholder_path);
+			close(spaceholder_f);
+			remove(spaceholder_path);
+			return -1;
+		}
+
+		if (close(spaceholder_f) != 0) {
+			log_fatal("Failed to close the space holder file '%s'.\n", spaceholder_path);
+			remove(spaceholder_path);
+			return -1;
+		}
 	}
+#else
+	(void)skip_space_holder;
 #endif
 
 	/* mask of bits used by the block size */
@@ -451,7 +456,7 @@ static int parity_handle_fill(struct snapraid_split_handle* split, data_off_t si
 	return parity_handle_shrink(split, base);
 }
 
-static int parity_handle_chsize(struct snapraid_split_handle* split, data_off_t size, uint32_t block_size, int skip_fallocate)
+static int parity_handle_chsize(struct snapraid_split_handle* split, data_off_t size, uint32_t block_size, int skip_fallocate, int skip_space_holder)
 {
 	int ret;
 	int f_ret;
@@ -459,7 +464,7 @@ static int parity_handle_chsize(struct snapraid_split_handle* split, data_off_t
 	int f_dir;
 
 	if (split->st.st_size < size) {
-		f_ret = parity_handle_fill(split, size, block_size, skip_fallocate);
+		f_ret = parity_handle_fill(split, size, block_size, skip_fallocate, skip_space_holder);
 		f_errno = errno;
 		f_dir = 1;
 	} else if (split->st.st_size > size) {
@@ -516,7 +521,7 @@ static int parity_split_is_fixed(struct snapraid_parity_handle* handle, unsigned
 	return 1;
 }
 
-int parity_chsize(struct snapraid_parity_handle* handle, struct snapraid_parity* parity, int* is_modified, data_off_t size, uint32_t block_size, int skip_fallocate)
+int parity_chsize(struct snapraid_parity_handle* handle, struct snapraid_parity* parity, int* is_modified, data_off_t size, uint32_t block_size, int skip_fallocate, int skip_space_holder)
 {
 	int ret;
 	unsigned s;
@@ -557,7 +562,7 @@ int parity_chsize(struct snapraid_parity_handle* handle, struct snapraid_parity*
 			run = size;
 		}
 		
-		ret = parity_handle_chsize(split, run, block_size, skip_fallocate);
+		ret = parity_handle_chsize(split, run, block_size, skip_fallocate, skip_space_holder);
 		if (ret != 0)
 			return -1;
 
diff --git a/cmdline/parity.h b/cmdline/parity.h
index 6099416e..056362eb 100644
--- a/cmdline/parity.h
+++ b/cmdline/parity.h
@@ -94,7 +94,7 @@ int parity_create(struct snapraid_parity_handle* handle, const struct snapraid_p
  * Change the parity size.
  * \param out_size Return the size of the parity file. The out_size is set also on error to reflect a partial resize.
  */
-int parity_chsize(struct snapraid_parity_handle* handle, struct snapraid_parity* parity, int* is_modified, data_off_t size, uint32_t block_size, int skip_fallocate);
+int parity_chsize(struct snapraid_parity_handle* handle, struct snapraid_parity* parity, int* is_modified, data_off_t size, uint32_t block_size, int skip_fallocate, int skip_space_holder);
 
 /**
  * Get the size of the parity.
diff --git a/cmdline/snapraid.c b/cmdline/snapraid.c
index 5cfe2803..01eb1bbd 100644
--- a/cmdline/snapraid.c
+++ b/cmdline/snapraid.c
@@ -292,6 +292,7 @@ void config(char* conf, size_t conf_size, const char* argv0)
 #define OPT_TEST_IO_ADVISE_DIRECT 299
 #define OPT_TEST_PARITY_LIMIT 301
 #define OPT_TEST_SKIP_CONTENT_WRITE 302
+#define OPT_TEST_SKIP_SPACE_HOLDER 303
 
 #if HAVE_GETOPT_LONG
 struct option long_options[] = {
@@ -453,6 +454,9 @@ struct option long_options[] = {
 	/* Skip content write */
 	{ "test-skip-content-write", 0, 0, OPT_TEST_SKIP_CONTENT_WRITE },
 
+	/* Skip space holder file in parity disks */
+	{ "test-skip-space-holder", 0, 0, OPT_TEST_SKIP_SPACE_HOLDER },
+
 	{ 0, 0, 0, 0 }
 };
 #endif
@@ -879,6 +883,9 @@ int main(int argc, char* argv[])
 		case OPT_TEST_SKIP_CONTENT_WRITE :
 			opt.skip_content_write = 1;
 			break;
+		case OPT_TEST_SKIP_SPACE_HOLDER :
+			opt.skip_space_holder = 1;
+			break;
 		default :
 			/* LCOV_EXCL_START */
 			log_fatal("Unknown option '%c'\n", (char)c);
diff --git a/cmdline/state.h b/cmdline/state.h
index 188d0a22..6e190e82 100644
--- a/cmdline/state.h
+++ b/cmdline/state.h
@@ -89,6 +89,7 @@ struct snapraid_option {
 	int skip_device; /**< Skip devices matching checks. */
 	int skip_sign; /**< Skip the sign check for content files. */
 	int skip_fallocate; /**< Skip the use of fallocate(). */
+	int skip_space_holder; /**< Skip the use of spaceholder file. */
 	int file_mode; /**< File mode. Mask of ADVISE_* flags. */
 	int skip_lock; /**< Skip the lock file protection. */
 	int skip_self; /**< Skip the self-test. */
diff --git a/cmdline/sync.c b/cmdline/sync.c
index 7d4b6c8c..bababec1 100644
--- a/cmdline/sync.c
+++ b/cmdline/sync.c
@@ -1514,7 +1514,7 @@ int state_sync(struct snapraid_state* state, block_off_t blockstart, block_off_t
 			/* change the size of the parity file, truncating or extending it */
 			/* from this point all the DELETED blocks after the end of the parity are invalid */
 			/* and they are automatically removed when we save the new content file */
-			ret = parity_chsize(&parity_handle[l], &state->parity[l], &is_modified, size, state->block_size, state->opt.skip_fallocate);
+			ret = parity_chsize(&parity_handle[l], &state->parity[l], &is_modified, size, state->block_size, state->opt.skip_fallocate, state->opt.skip_space_holder);
 			if (ret == -1) {
 				/* LCOV_EXCL_START */
 				data_off_t out_size;